Don't Look Back

More Cowboy Stories So you wanna be a cowboy? Taking a heiffer to the vet She who laughs last... Don't look back

I work in a feedyard, where cattle are fed out for slaughter. Our cattle get the best of care. A healthy, happy heifer or steer gains better weight and produces better meat. Our job, as penriders, is to ride thru the pens at least once a day, and to spot the ones that aren’t feeling good. We pull them, which means we bring them out of the pen, and put them into what’s called a drover’s alley. From there we can bring them to our cattle hospital fairly easily.

This day, though, my buddy and I just got done riding our last pens. It was close to noon, and I had needed to powder my nose for the last hour. Now I could not wait any longer, even tho we were going to be headed to the barn in just a short while.

We had a few heifers pulled, and were taking them up the drovers alley. Before Dee could start visiting, I held up my hand and said “Would you just keep riding for a bit and Don’t Look Back?”
He chuckled a bit, said “Yes, ma’am”, and took our heifers up the alley.

I got off my horse, took all the stuff off that needed removed, and did my thing.
I’m riding a colt right now, and after 4 hours of riding, she was pretty tired. The young horses always take the opportunity to sniff me over pretty good when I’m squatted down in front of them like that, and this one was no exception. But this one was very new, and when she saw the other horse leaving her, she nickered after him. I said whoa and hoped she wouldn't get any ideas about following him.

Yeah, right...
She took a step, and I, still squatting, grabbed for the rein... and missed.
Of course, my quick arm motion spooked her, and she took a little jump away from me. Then, calm as she could be, she started walking after Dee and his horse.
I thought, No sweat, she’ll catch up to him and he’ll see her and bring her back.

Wrong again…
When she caught up to him, she just fell in behind his horse, and they both kept walking towards the other end of the drover’s alley. I put all my gear back on, keeping an eye on Dee, hoping he wouldn’t turn around and see me in an inopportune moment. I didn’t need to worry. He kept on walking and walking and my horse kept on following him.
I walked after them, whistled, hollered, yelled, whistled some more. But he had a hat and a hoodie on, and he just couldn’t hear me.
Apparently, he heard my horse come up behind him and resumed the conversation we were having before my break. Only when I didn’t answer back did it occur to him to look around and see what was wrong.
By the time I saw him stop and catch my horse, I had covered half the length of the ally on foot.